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We are all directly or indirectly heavy consumers of electrical and electronic goods. This has an important impact on our environment, partly because of the use of resources, and partly because of the potential pollution during use and disposal.
Sustainable development involves meeting the present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
The Western World is far from reaching this goal, and we have to face the fact, that other parts of the world, among others China and India with their large populations, have a just expectation to reach the same level of welfare as we have, implying possibly the same level of consumption. If nothing is changed, this means an enormous increase in the level of pollution and use of resources.
In order to limit the environmental impacts from this increased consumption, the Western World must be leading the search for new technology and methods, partly because we have the financial and technical resources, and partly because we have to be an example for the Third World.
In 1992, more than 100 leaders from different countries met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the first international Earth Summit convened to address urgent problems of environmental protection and socio-economic development. The assembled leaders signed the Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity, endorsed the Rio Declaration and the Forest Principles, and adopted Agenda 21, a 300 page plan for achieving sustainable development in the 21st century.
One of the goals is, without loss of welfare, to obtain a tenfold improvement in resource productivity in industrialised countries in the long term (40-50 years), and a factor-four increase in industrialised countries in the next two or three decades.
See also "The Essentials for a Sustainable Economics" from the "Factor 10 Institute" in France (see Links: LCA/Sustainability).
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